Navigating Chronic Illness Care Amidst a Global Pandemic: Insights from Missed Clinic Visits Before, During and After COVID-19 in Nigeria

Background: Anti-pandemic tactics impacted global healthcare service delivery, reducing access to routine treatment in clinics. This study looked at the frequency of missed outpatient clinic visits before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the factors that influenced them among patients with chronic conditions.Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was undertaken on 400 patients with chronic conditions who attended outpatient clinics at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital in Ilorin, Nigeria. A pretested interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data, which was then analysed using IBM's Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 21. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used.Results: In 2020, 269 (67.3%) of respondents skipped at least one clinic appointment, up from 126 (31.5%) before COVID-19 (2019) and 122 (30.5%) after COVID-19 in 2021. COVID-19 restrictions prevented more than four-fifths (88.0%) of responders from attending clinic appointments. Other factors that increased the rate of missed clinic visits included patients who were not accompanied to the clinic (p= 0.002), those who were not consistent with their medications (p=0.005), those who lived outside town (p=0.017), those who attended more than one clinic (p=0.015), and patients who had more than one chronic disease (p=0.040).Conclusion: Patients with chronic illnesses who attended follow-up clinics missed significantly more clinic sessions in 2020 (during the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic) compared to previous and subsequent years. It is advised that telemedicine and other technical breakthroughs be used as treatment methods to avoid this in the future.